J Street and Judge Goldstone: the plot thickens
Thomas Lifson
So a George Soros-supported staff intellectual, who also advises J Street turns out to be effectively delegated to speak for the author of UN report critical of Israel.
The web of influence bought by Soros’s billions staggers the mind.
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I am not at all surprised. Soros is the puppet master and chief bank roller of the U.S. [and maybe more] left-wing political universe. A very dangerous man.
Glenn Beck Clips 10-29-09 Seg1 of 5 SPECIAL: Lord Monckton & John Bolton on Climate Treaty.
Glenn Beck Clips 10-29-09 Seg2 of 5 Monckton: Climate Treaty Targeted Against America
Glenn Beck Clips 10-29-09 Seg3 of 5 Monckton: The Word ‘Government’ for 1st Time in the Treaty
Glenn Beck Clips 10-29-09 Seg4 of 5 In 70′s Scientists Said Global Cooling, Had Proof Charts
Glenn Beck Clips 10-29-09 Seg5 of 5 Monckton Says Al Gore a COWARD and Will NOT Debate
Ron Paul vs. Michael Moore on Larry King CNN 10/29/2009
I have several disagreements with Ron Paul but he does make a few good points regarding economics.
Ohio Christian Girl Still Trying to Escape Muslim Parents
By: Pamela Geller:
Rifqa Bary is in grave danger. Rifqa, the girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled to Florida after saying that her father threatened her life, could now be returned to her devout Muslim family.
Last Tuesday, Oct. 27, she was returned to Ohio and placed in foster care in Franklin County. Eric Fenner, the executive director of Franklin County Children Services, said that he has “no reason to believe Rifqa wouldn’t be safe with her parents” — with the father who according to Rifqa said, “If you have this Jesus in your heart, you’re dead to me. You’re not my daughter . . . I will kill you.”
And even now in Ohio, Rifqa Bary’s civil rights are being violated. She is being held prisoner: She is not allowed use of the phone or the Internet, unlike thousands of other children in foster care. Why? What is her crime?
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Israeli Colonel Refutes Damning U.N. Report
By: Kenneth R. Timmerman:
The United Nations and much of the world media have blasted Israel for alleged war crimes during its incursion into the Gaza Strip in January, but one Israeli tank commander is mounting a spirited defense, using declassified video footage from Israel Defense Force drones and commercial media.
The video clips show the extraordinary efforts the IDF made to avoid civilian casualties, at times steering bombs away from their intended targets, because the target had moved into a crowd of civilians.
They also provide graphic testimony of war crimes committed by Hamas. In one scene, an armed Hamas fighter can be seen grabbing a child by the arm holding the child in front of him as he crossed the street.
“He knows that our snipers shoot them when they are in the open, crossing the street,” says Col. Ben-Tzion Gruber. “So they grab children as human shields. He knows we don’t shoot when there are children around.”
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You would necessarily be an antisemite to believe Israel guilty of war crimes.
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Troubling Signals On Free Speech
by Stuart Taylor Jr., National Journal:
It was nice to hear Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton say on October 26, “I strongly disagree” with Islamic countries seeking to censor free speech worldwide by making defamation of religion a crime under international law.
But watch what the Obama administration does, not just what it says. I’m not talking about its attacks on Fox News. I’m talking about a little-publicized October 2 resolution in which Clinton’s own State Department joined Islamic nations in adopting language all-too-friendly to censoring speech that some religions and races find offensive.
The ambiguously worded United Nations Human Rights Council resolution could plausibly be read as encouraging or even obliging the U.S. to make it a crime to engage in hate speech, or, perhaps, in mere “negative racial and religious stereotyping.” This despite decades of First Amendment case law protecting such speech.
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Dismantling America: Part II
By Thomas Sowell:
Many years ago, at a certain academic institution, there was an experimental program that the faculty had to vote on as to whether or not it should be made permanent.
I rose at the faculty meeting to say that I knew practically nothing about whether the program was good or bad, and that the information that had been supplied to us was too vague for us to have any basis for voting, one way or the other. My suggestion was that we get more concrete information before having a vote.
The director of that program rose immediately and responded indignantly and sarcastically to what I had just said– and the faculty gave him a standing ovation.
After the faculty meeting was over, I told a colleague that I was stunned and baffled by the faculty’s fierce response to my simply saying that we needed more information before voting.
“Tom, you don’t understand,” he said. “Those people need to believe in that man. They have invested so much hope and trust in him that they cannot let you stir up any doubts.”
Years later, and hundreds of miles away, I learned that my worst misgivings about that program did not begin to approach the reality, which included organized criminal activity.
The memory of that long-ago episode has come back more than once while observing both the actions of the Obama administration and the fierce reactions of its supporters to any questioning or criticism.
Almost never do these reactions include factual or logical arguments against the administration’s critics. Instead, there is indignation, accusations of bad faith and even charges of racism.
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Breaking the Hippie Spell at the White House
By Judi McLeod:
In the upside down world that comes with Barack Obama in the White House, everything is a prop—including Old Glory.
“One of the 20 finalists in health care video contest run by Barack Obama’s campaign arm features a mural of an American flag splattered with health care graffiti until it’s covered completely by black paint.” (politico.com, Oct. 28, 2009.)
“The video is accompanied by the sound of a heart monitor pumping and then flat-lining—words such as “pre-existing conditions”, “homeless” and “death panel” ultimately obliterate the flag, which reappears on screen seconds later with the words “Health Will Bring Our Country Back to Life” on the blue field where the 50 stars usually are.”
How could anyone expect respect for the American flag when the Obama administration shows no respect for the heroes in harm’s way fighting to preserve that flag?
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Caught: Muslim father who attempted honor killing in Arizona
Jihad Watch:
Note the egregious, completely gratuitous attack on Rifqa Bary and defense of Islam at the end of this story. The mainstream media continues to feel itself compelled to run interference for Muslims as a group whenever a Muslim behaves badly — a courtesy they never accord to other groups. An update on this story.
“Muslim Father Arrested for Running Over ‘Westernized’ Daughter: Cops Capture Iraqi Immigrant Accused of Attempted Honor Killing,” by Sarah Netter for ABC News, October 30 (thanks to Paul):
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Silencing dissent in America
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST:
Former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold should probably buy himself a flak jacket. Gold is scheduled to debate Richard Goldstone at Brandeis University next Thursday and the anti-Israel forces are organizing quite a reception for him.
Goldstone, who chaired the UN Human Rights Council’s commission charged with accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, has become a darling of the anti-Israel Left in the weeks since his report accusing Israel of committing both war crimes and crimes against humanity was published last month. And anti-Israeli leftists don’t like the idea of someone challenging his libelous attacks against Israel in a public debate at a university.
In an e-mail to a campus list-serve, Brandeis student and anti-Israel activist Jonathan Sussman called on his fellow anti-Zionists to disrupt the event that will pit the “neutral” Goldstone against Gold with his “wildly pro-Zionist message.” Sussman invited his list-serve members to join him at a meeting to “discuss a possible response.”
As the young community organizer sees it, “Possibilities include inviting Palestinian speakers to come participate, seeding the audience with people who can disrupt the Zionist narrative, protest and direct action.” He closed his missive with a plaintive call to arms: “F**k the occupation.”
Apparently the aspiring political organizer never considered another possibility: listening to what Gold has to say.
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UNDER PERSECUTION
UNDER PERSECUTION: Asia Bibi
Location: Pakistan
Arrested: June 2009
Asia Bibi, a 37-year-old Pakistani woman from the village of Ittanwali, was arrested by police on Friday, June 19, and faces possible blasphemy charges. Asia is the wife of 50-year-old Ashiq Masih, and their family is one of only three Christian families in a village of more than 1,500 families.
Many of the local women work on the farm of Muslim landowner Muhammad Idrees, including Asia. During their work many of the Muslim women have pressured Asia to renounce Christianity and accept Islam. In June, the pressure became especially strong.
On Friday, June 19, there was an intense discussion among the women about their faith, with the Muslim women telling Asia about Islam. Asia responded by telling them about her faith in Christ. Asia told the Muslim women Christ had died on the cross for our sins, then asked them what Mohammed had done for them, according to VOM sources. She told them Jesus is alive, but Mohammed is dead. “Our Christ is the true prophet of God,” she reportedly told them, “and yours is not true.”
Upon hearing this response the Muslim women became angry and began to beat Asia Bibi. Then some men came and took her and locked her in a room. They announced from mosque loudspeakers that she would be punished by having her face blackened and being paraded through the village on a donkey. Local Christians informed the police, who took Asia into custody before the Muslims could carry out their plan. She is currently being held at the police station in Nankana city. Christians there urged the police not to file blasphemy charges, but police claimed that they must go forward due to pressure from local Muslim leaders.
The Voice of the Martyrs urges Christians around the world to pray for Asia Bibi and her family. Further, we call on the Pakistani government to insure that the rights of Christians like Asia are protected.
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Be Prepared for the Worst
Ron Paul, Forbes:
Any number of pundits claim that we have now passed the worst of the recession. Green shoots of recovery are supposedly popping up all around the country, and the economy is expected to resume growing soon at an annual rate of 3% to 4%. Many of these are the same people who insisted that the economy would continue growing last year, even while it was clear that we were already in the beginning stages of a recession.
A false recovery is under way. I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the Depression was over and that recovery was just around the corner. The economy and stock market seemed to be recovering, and there was optimism that the recession, like many of those before it, would be over in a year or less. Instead, the interventionist policies of Hoover and Roosevelt caused the Depression to worsen, and the Dow Jones industrial average did not recover to 1929 levels until 1954. I fear that our stimulus and bailout programs have already done too much to prevent the economy from recovering in a natural manner and will result in yet another asset bubble.
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U.N. probe of Israel ‘used false witnesses’
By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily:
A U.N. investigator who accused Israel of war crimes was misled by false witnesses and Palestinian misinformation, charged the chief medical officer of an Israeli army brigade that was previously falsely accused of committing a massacre.
“You have let yourself be misled by fabrications made by either terrorists or even doctors. … Did you by any chance try to validate any of these invented and inciting details? Well you didn’t!” wrote David Zangen, an Israeli reservist officer and physician.
Zangen, in an open letter published in Israel’s Maariv newspaper, was addressing South African Judge Richard Goldstone, who penned a U.N. report that claimed both Hamas and Israel were guilty of war crimes during the Jewish state’s defensive war in Gaza last December and January.
Goldstone’s report claimed Israel deliberately targeted civilians during the Gaza conflict, which started after Hamas refused to extend a cease-fire. The terrorist group instead launched a rocket offensive against Israeli population centers.
The U.N. report equated Israel, which worked to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, to Hamas, which utilized civilians as human shields and fired rockets at Jewish cities from Palestinian hospitals and apartment buildings.
During the Gaza war, Israel sent hundreds of thousands of text messages and placed tens of thousands of calls warning local Palestinians of incoming attacks against Hamas’ military infrastructure in Gaza.
Zangen’s letter questioned specific details of Goldstone’s report that, Zangen alleged, relied heavily on faulty witnesses without corroborating their testimony.
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Muddled models
By Peter Foster, FP:
When the TD Bank’s Don Drummond agreed to spend $110,000 on a study of the impact of climate change policy on Canada, what he had in mind was to elucidate the regional impacts of such policies. This was a worthy objective, although everybody knows that it’s Alberta that stands to get hammered. But Mr. Drummond chose to channel the study, which was carried out by climate policy wonk Mark Jaccard, through the Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute, organizations hardly known for their objectivity on the issue. Why do this? Mr. Drummond told me yesterday that these activist organizations have “technical expertise,” while Mr. Jaccard apparently has “the models.”
TD certainly got media bang for the buck. His report was leaked to The Globe and Mail, and yesterday’s Globe featured a front-page story, two columns and an editorial. However, the thrust of coverage appeared to contradict the smiley-faced conclusions of the report, which was titled “Climate leadership, economic prosperity.” Or, please hobble us so that we can run faster!
Under reasons for draconian action, the report quotes the widely discredited report from British economist and climate extremist Nicholas Stern. Meanwhile, the Jaccard study claims that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the fount of science, but then maintains that the situation is much worse than that presented by the IPCC.
The Stern report’s central flaw is a ridiculously low discount rate. If that sounds technical, what it means is that man-made climate change is claimed to be already costing us 5-20% of global GDP annually. It’s just that we can’t see where.
Lord Stern is increasingly becoming a figure of ridicule.
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The three envelopes
By Charles Krauthammer:
Old Soviet joke:
Moscow, 1953. Stalin calls in Khrushchev.
“Niki, I’m dying. Don’t have much to leave you. Just three envelopes. Open them, one at a time, when you get into big trouble.”
A few years later, first crisis. Khrushchev opens envelope 1: “Blame everything on me. Uncle Joe.”
A few years later, a really big crisis. Opens envelope 2: “Blame everything on me. Again. Good luck, Uncle Joe.”
Third crisis. Opens envelope 3: “Prepare three envelopes.”
In the Barack Obama version, there are 50 or so such blame-Bush free passes before the gig is up. By my calculation, Obama has already burned through a good 49. Is there anything he hasn’t blamed George W. Bush for? The economy, global warming, the credit crisis, Middle East stalemate, the deficit, anti-Americanism abroad — everything but swine flu.
It’s as if Obama’s presidency hasn’t really started. He’s still taking inventory of the Bush years. Just this Monday, he referred to “long years of drift” in Afghanistan in order to, I suppose, explain away his own, well, yearlong drift on Afghanistan.
This compulsion to attack his predecessor is as stale as it is unseemly. Obama was elected a year ago.
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